~ An ALT in Fujioka, Gunma-ken

Myougi-san and Kouyou

This past weekend was a nice one, especially because it was a three day weekend! Kenji, Shauna and I took a day trip on Saturday to Myogi-san, one of the three most recognizable mountains in Gunma, to go see the fall colors. The day was absolutely beautiful, and it was nice to take a bit of a “road trip”, even just a short one.

Kenji Car Penguin starts the trip off right.

Myogi-san from afar. Its very obvious because of its jagged peaks.

We first stopped by the main shrine, but due to some damage in a landslide last year, the main part was closed to visitors. We weren’t up for some heavy hiking/climbing, so we opted to visit the smaller part then continue on the way to the mountain.

Shauna on the road to the shrine. I’m not sure why she’s out of focus, but its still a cool picture!

Cleansing the hands

It was during the time of the Shichi-go-san festival, or 7-5-3, where young girls ages 7 and 3, and boys aged 5, dress up and visit the shrines for blessings. Not sure what the hand motion was here, but he was really cute!

We were looking for some rock arches, but ended up passing them (I think, anyway…). Instead, we stopped at a small enclave with a giant gold statue of… someone or another. We found the path beyond it and started up… having no idea where it was going, but that was part of the fun!

In the parking lot.

Jolly Gold Giant. Notice that overhang his sword is pointed at? Yeah, we ended up there!

So we climbed and climbed and the “we don’t want any heavy hiking” went out the window as we just kept going up! But once we got up there, well… the view was spectacular! The fall colors were beautiful, the sky blue, and we had waaaayyyy too much fun with our cameras (all four of them. yeah.)

Me taking a picture… according to Kenji I hold the camera weird XD;

Fall colors in the background!

The VIEW! Oh Man!

More pretty views!

Shauna climbing and taking pictures at the same time… multitasker!

DESTROYER OF WORLDS…. after he takes a picture!

“What?”

Probably laughing at Kenji XD

So all in all it was a good day! We had udon for dinner and called it a day, everyone was pretty tired, and Kenji had homework to turn in. I can’t wait to go back, it was sooooo pretty!